I just read your ride report and was really pleased to see that Just Dan is out and about - I had been wondering how he was...I am in WA - rode from Adelaide early October and saw swarms of riders heading to the moto GP over the Nullabor.
I am hoping to head down south on my bike sometime in the next month or so.
Sooray

After a few days of catching up with friends and family in Melbourne, due to the boat being full, it was time to load the bike up with all the contraband I had purchased in the bike shops of Melbourne.
I now had three disc rotors strapped to the bike, and a pile of little hi tech gadgets so dear to my heart.

Loaded again, outside my brothers place.

You can just see the disc rotors sticking their nose out under the gear on the seat.

On the ferry.

An early breakfast at one of the few good places open early in the morning, The House of Anvers Chocolate factory, the boat unloads at about 630 AM.

It ws then onto the back roads that as locals we know so well, with the plan being to go over Poatina to the lakes highway, then down past Bothwell and there split for different routes home.

I had bought a pile of spares when I first arrived in the north island, one of which was a new ignition key, as the old one was showing signs of failure.
The bike did all the dirt and bouncy tar without fault, and it is almost poetic that the spark should go away after a "spirited" ride up the poatina hairpins, and stopped like a switch had been turned off, which it had been.
Sp in brilliant sunshine the tools came out and the electricery fault tracing began.
As my mate Murphy would always have it, I started from the wrong end, looking at the Sache ignition module and its associated connections.

It was wrong, as the fault was indeed the ignition key switch.
The old one had bullet connections, while the new one had 1/4 spades, so after a quick rewire with crimp fittings from Dan, it was gear on again and the last hour and a bit to home.